The blog of Marine Conservation Institute

Protecting my newborn granddaughter

Riley Anne Mesnick is my new granddaughter, born on March 14, 2013. Riley is unique in a number of ways, including genetically. In a world with more than 7 billion people, there is nobody quite like her.

As an aside, 7 billion is an awful lot of big mammals for this Earth to deal with. More about that another time.

Riley is also unique in having famous parents, Jason and Molly Mesnick, who met each other, experienced a lot of drama, and later married their lives on national television. Riley will soon make her debut in Peoplemagazine. Not every kid gets to do that. Pictures soon!

So Riley’s unique. But she’s also special in the way that all newborns are special. She didn’t ask to be here. With our encouragement, her parents made her happen. They and all of us are responsible to her and all newborn babies.

I think every newborn should come with an instruction manual. Not having seen one (they might be out there), I’ll offer a thought or two on what would be in it if Grampus (which is my name to my grandchildren) wrote it.